TENURE (from Lat. tonere, to hold). The mode by which a man holds an estate in lands.
Such a holding as is coupled • with some service, which the holder is bound to perform so long as he continues to hold.
The thing held is called a tenement ; the occu pant, a tenant ; and the manner of his holding con stitutes the tenure. Upon common-law principles, all lands within the state are held directly or indi rectly from the king, as lord paramount or supreme proprietor. To him every occupant of land owes fidelity and service of some kind, as the necessary condition of his occupation. If he fails in either respect, or dies without heirs upon whom this duty may devolve, his land reverts to the sovereign as ultimate proprietor. In this country, the people in their corporate capacity represent the state sover eignty; and every man must hear true allegiance to the state, and pay his share of the taxes requir ed for her support, as the condition upon which alone he may hold land within her boundaries ; Co. Litt. 65 a ; 2 Bla. Com. 105 ; 3 Kent 487.
In the earlier ages of the world the condition of land was probably aliodial, that is, without subjec tion to any superior,—every man occupying as much land found unappropriated as his necessities re quired. Over this he exercised an unqualified do minion ; and when he parted with his ownership the possession of his successor was equally free and absolute. An estate of this character necessarily excludes the idea of any tenure, since the occupant owes no service or allegiance to any superior as the condition of his occupation. But when the exist ence of an organized society became desirable to secure certain blessings only by Its means to be ac quired, there followed the establishment of govern ments, and a new relation arose between each gov ernment and its citizens,—that of protection on the one hand and dependence on the other,—necessarily Involving the idea of service to the state as a condi tion to the use and enjoyment of lands within its boundaries. This relation was of course modified according to the circumstances of particular states ; but throughout Europe it early took the form of the feudal system. See Awn.
The prindipal species of tenure which grew out of the feudal system was the tenure by knight's serv ice (q. v.). Many arbitrary and tyrannical inci dents or lordly privileges were attached to this ten ure, which was abolished by statute 12 Charles II. c. 24, which declared that all such lands should thenCeforth be held in free and common socage. Tenure in socage is where a tenant holds his ten ement by any certain service, in lieu of all other services; so that they be not services of chivalry or knight's service : as, to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent, or by homage, fealty, and twenty shillings rent, or by homage and fealty without any rents, or by fealty and a certain specified service, as, to plough the lord's land for three days. Littleton
117; 2 Bla. Cora. 79. See SOCAGE.
Other tenures have grown out of the two last mentioned species of tenure, and are still extant in England. See [1907] 1 ch. 366.
Among these are tenures by copyho/d and in frankalmoin, in burgage and gavelkind, and grand and petit serjeanty; but their nature, origin, and history are explained in the several articles ap propriated to those terms.
Tenures were distinguished, according to the quality of the service, into free or base; the former were such as were not unbecoming a soldier or a freeman to perform, as, to serve the lord In the wars ; while the latter were only considered fit for a peasant, as to , plough the land, and the like. They were further distinguished with reference to the person from whom the land was held, as a ten ure in capite, where the holding was of the person of the king, and tenure in gross, where the holding was of a subject. By the statute of Quia Ent/gores, 18 Edw. I., it was provided that if any tenant should. alien any part of his land in fee, the alienee should hold immediately of the lord of the fee, and should be charged with a proportional part of the service due in respect of the quantity of land held by him. The consequence•of which was that upon every such alienation the services upon which the estate was originally granted became due to the superior lord, and not to the immediate grantee ; 4 Term 443; East 271; Crabb, R. P. § 735.
Only free tenures were recognized by the royal courts. The free tenures were frankalmoin, knight service, serjeanty and socage ; see 2 Holdsw. 159; 3 id. 27.
In the United States every estate in fee-sim ple is held as absolutely and unconditionally as is compatible with the state's right of emi nent domain. Many grants of land made by the British Crown prior to the Revolution cre ated socage tenures, which were subsequently abolished or modified by the legislatures of the different states. Thus, by the charter of Pennsylvania, the proprietary held his es• tate of the crown in free and common socage, his grantees being thereby also authorized to hold of him directly, notwithstanding the statute of quia emptores. An act of Penn sylvania of November 27, 1779, substituted the commonwealth in place of the proprie taries as the ultimate proprietor of whom lands were held. Pennsylvania titles are allodial not feudal; Wallace v. Harmstad, I 44 Pa. 492. In New York there was suppos ed to have been some species of military tenure introduced by the Dutch previously to their surrender to the English, in 1664; but the legislature of that state in 1787 turn ed them all into a tenure in free and com mon socage, and finally, in 1830, abolished this latter tenure entirely, and declared that all lauds in that state should thenceforth be held upon a uniform allodial tenure.
See QUIA EMPTORES; ALLODIAL.
See Parliamentary Report (1870) on Ten ures in the countries of Europe.